Nip-fed sheet media transport systems using paired rollers are widely used in various printing applications. In a nip-fed system, a drive roller is pressed against a backing roller to form a nip and provides drive motion at the nip. A nip-fed transport can be engineered to perform with a suitable degree of accuracy in devices such as printers and office copiers. However, conventional nip-fed media transport mechanisms do not provide sufficient precision for imaging applications that require high resolution. For example, many types of medical imaging apparatus print onto a sheet of recording medium at resolutions well exceeding 600 dots per inch. For such devices, a sheet media transport must provide extremely accurate motion when moving the sheet through the image recording mechanism. This problem becomes even more pronounced with full-sheet imaging, in which little or no margin is to be provided at the leading or trailing edges of a sheet. As is well appreciated by those skilled in media transport arts, the dynamics of handling and urging a sheet of recording medium through a printing mechanism can be much more complex at the leading and trailing edges than along more central portions of the sheet.
Dual nip apparatus provide advantages where it is necessary to provide more precise motion control for sheet media. By using two pairs of rollers in series along the transport path, a more stable sheet media transport is provided, since the motion of the medium is controlled through at least one nip at any point during the image recording process. FIG. 1 shows, in schematic form, a conventional dual nip transport apparatus 10 as used for a sheet of recording medium 12. In the travel path, recording medium 12 is fed through an entrance nip 14 formed between an entrance drive roller 16 and a pressure roller 18, then through an exit nip 24 formed between an exit drive roller 26 and a pressure roller 28. Image data is recorded by a printhead 56 onto recording medium 12 in an imaging area 20 between entrance nip 14 and exit nip 24, typically using a laser or other source of electromagnetic radiation. In order to provide uniform speed with dual nip media transport apparatus 10, it is necessary to couple the speed of entrance drive roller 16 at entrance nip 14 with the speed of exit drive roller 26 at exit nip 24. The conventional method for coupling entrance and exit drive rollers 16 and 26 is using a belt 22, as shown in FIG. 1.
While the use of belt 22 for synchronizing entrance and exit drive rollers 16 and 26 works well in many applications, the precision afforded by this arrangement falls short of what is needed for high resolution imaging. Problems such as disturbance of uniform velocity or flutter cause variation in the transport velocity of recording medium 12, particularly during leading-edge and trailing-edge handling intervals in which recording medium 12 is gripped only at entrance nip 14 or exit nip 16. Other problems related to compliance and tracking render the use of belt 22 as an unsatisfactory solution, particularly for media such as film that is generally thicker and more rigid than paper media or for sheet media that can vary in thickness. Furthermore, belt 22 is a wear item that may require replacement and whose performance can be degraded by age, usage, and dust or dirt.
There are a number of alternatives for providing rotational motion to entrance and exit drive mechanisms. As one alternative, either entrance drive roller 16 or exit drive roller 26 could be directly coupled to a motor shaft, with coupling mechanisms provided between these rollers. However, due to inherent coupling losses and mechanical tolerances, it can be difficult to obtain a coupling arrangement that provides highly efficient coupling with minimum flutter. As another alternative, a third roller can be driven by the motor and used to couple rotation to entrance and exit rollers. While this option offers some advantages, its implementation is complicated by the need to maintain efficient coupling under load and to compensate for unwanted mechanical effects caused by motor rotation.
Thus, it can be seen that there is a need for a transport mechanism that provides precision handling of single sheet media at a constant transport speed, allowing full sheet imaging from leading to trailing edge.